I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component and an assembled circuit using the same; and more particularly, the present invention relates to an electronic component and an assembled circuit that can improve power density of a power supply as a whole by reducing an overall size of the electronic component.
II. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays with the development of the power supply technologies, requirements on the power density and the size of a power supply are more and more critical. There exists a variety of methods for increasing the power density of a power supply, among which a popular method is to increase the power density of a power supply by altering some electrical characteristics of the power supply. For example, an operating frequency of the converter may be increased significantly to shrink the sizes of some passive components (e.g., an inductor) in expectation of an improved power density. However, there also exists many factors that have the influence on the power density and the efficiency of a converter, for example, sizes of individual components, the structural design of the converter as a whole and the like. Hereinafter, a point of load (POL) DC to DC converter, which is one kind of DC-DC voltage converter, will be described for illustration purpose.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a POL DC to DC converter, which is a buck converter herein. The POL DC to DC converter 1 comprises an inductor 11, two switch elements 12, 15 (e.g., Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistors (MOSFETs)), an output capacitor 13 and a control chip 14. The control chip 14 is configured to receive an output feedback signal and an associated voltage adjustment control signal Vadj to control the operation of the POL DC to DC converter 1.
FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B illustrate a top view and a bottom view of a conventional POL DC to DC converter respectively. The conventional POL DC to DC converter 2 is packaged in a form of an assembled circuit, with conventional through-hole pins being adopted for both input and output pins thereof. As shown, the POL DC to DC converter 2 comprises a control chip 21, a circuit board 22, four input/output (I/O) capacitors 23, a number of through-hole pins 24, a magnetic component (an inductor here) 25 and two switch elements 27. The control chip 21 and the output capacitors 23 are disposed on one side of the carrier 22 which is usually a printed circuit board (PCB), while the magnetic element 25 and the two switch elements 27 are disposed on the other side of the circuit board 22.
The POL DC to DC converter 2 is plugged into a main circuit board (not shown) via the number of through-hole pins 24. However, the through-hole pins 24 occupy a certain area on a surface of the circuit board 22. Furthermore, the supporting effect of the pins 24 causes a certain thickness of the circuit board 22. These inevitably increase the volume of the POL DC to DC converter 2 and further lowers the overall power density thereof.
A top view and a bottom view of another conventional POL DC to DC converter are illustrated in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B respectively. This conventional POL DC to DC converter 3 is packaged in another form of an assembled circuit, with wave pins being adopted for both input and output pins thereof. In this example, the pins are soldered onto a surface of the circuit board. As shown, the POL DC to DC converter 3 comprises three capacitors 31 (including output capacitors and/or input capacitors), a switch element 32, a plurality of wave pins 33, a carrier 34, a magnetic component 35 and a control chip 36. The capacitors 31, the switch element 32 and the magnetic component 35 are disposed on one side of the carrier 34 which is usually a PCB, while the control chip 36 is disposed on the other side of the carrier 34. The POL DC to DC converter 3 is connected to a main circuit board (not shown) via the wave pins 33.
However, apart from occupying a certain area on the circuit board 34, the wave pins 33 also present a certain height. All these contribute to an increased volume and a decreased power density of the POL DC to DC converter 3.
In summary, the conventional POL DC to DC converters all suffer from the oversized overall volume and the low power density due to the pin arrangement in the conventional package. Therefore, it is highly desirable in the art to provide a novel assembled circuit adapted to improve the power density and shrink the overall size of an electronic apparatus and particularly a voltage converter, thereby to overcome the aforesaid problems.